:: The Chicken Diaries :: And Then There Were Six ::

 

So exciting, we have added three more chooks to our backyard flock! We picked up these 8 to 10 week old pullets on the weekend. The greyish one is a Silver Sussex, named Sylvia. The black and white ones are Silver Laced Barnevelders, with the older/ bigger being called Brynhilder, and the younger/ smaller one if Fluffy Wuffy. We are calling them the Little Sisters (and our original chooks are the Big Sisters, of course). Oh, they are so little compared to our other three girls (now a year old) and so, so cute. They are very timid, of course, and we have set up a separate chook house and chook run from the other three (though right next to each other) because we realised when we got them home, there was no way they could all be housed together due to the size difference. We couldn't risk the 'slip them in at night when they are all asleep' trick, and then find the fall out the next morning. Tweet Tweet and Princess Layer are not overly worried about them, and the couple of times they were near each other, were only bothered if the little sisters came near the food. Spotty, however, is not impressed. She will chase them and peck them, and even now they are separated by the 'playpen' fence, she still wants to have a go at them. We always thought that Tweet Tweet was the top of the pecking order, but Spotty seems the most put out by the new additions. Hmmm, we'll see how that plays out once the Little Sisters have grown big enough to integrate them all together.

Hmm, something is going on here. Do you see what I see? Oh-ma-gawd! What is that? Someone shrunk a chook!

I have been meaning to update you about our chooks, because we had an issue, and it is because of my neglect to regularly inspect our girls that it got as bad as it did. Lice. The three chooks had chicken nits (actually, just two of them). I knew mites and lice were something that happened to chooks, I just figured ours were fine. I'd never really inspected them, or done a 'nit check' like we do with the kids! It wasn't until I noticed a re-occuring 'poopy bum' on Princess Layer that I decided she needed a wash, and that's when I saw them!! Little, pale brown to beige, oval shaped critters. And (please don't read this if you are eating, or of sensitive intestinal fortitude) clusters or clumps of lice eggs, particularly around their vents. (Graphic photos on this forum). Except Spotty. She didn't seem to have a single lice on her, or any egg-clumps stuck to the base of her feathers. Go figure. Princess Layer had them the worst, and not far behind was Tweet Tweet (who also had a bit of poopy bum, when I picked her up and inspected her... her brown feathers did not show it up as much as Princess's white feathers). Oh, my, I felt like such a terrible chook-mother. I mean, we pick our chooks up all the time, we observe them a lot (including their cute fluffy bums) but I'd never checked closely to their vents or the skin under their feathers.

So, I replaced their bedding, moved their chook house and run, bought and applied Pestene powder, wormed them at the same time, cut off some matted poopy feathers & egg-clumps, and have been keeping up the treatment weekly, for any lice eggs that have hatched since. Poor, poor chookens. They haven't been too upset by it, they've continued laying, been eating & getting around just fine. Other than Spotty having a limpy leg for a while, they have been happy and healthy. We are buying some diatomaceous earth to sprinkle carefully in their nesting and dust bath areas. There are other natural methods too. By adding a couple of covers over the top of the 'playpen' chook run, we have kept a lot of the wild birds out too, including the Indian Myna's, which apparently are quite good at spreading lice. Of course, the big thing we will be doing is checking them regularly!!

We did hesitate to get the new chooks when we were still dealing with eradicating lice from our original flock. However, the opportunity to purchase some rare breed chooks, that were already at the age to handle being outside, had come up and we had agreed to buy them. Now they are being housed away from the other chooks anyway, it doesn't matter as much. Of course, we will still be keeping a close eye on our little peepers. We are talking to them, going into their playpen, and picking them up sometimes, to get them used to us. They get locked up in their little chook house each night, and happily run around, scratch and explore their new home during the day. Did I mention how cute they are! They have a shared fence with the other girls, and when the others are free-ranging, they are getting exposed to each other through the other sides of the fence too. Once the Little Sisters get big enough to defend themselves, or to not fit in their little chook house anymore, it will be time to start assimilating them in with their Big Sisters. I will post some photos of how we have their houses/ runs set up in the next post!